The Last Day

Image Critiques Avian Critiques
1

RRF_210623_0161.jpg
RRF_210623_0161.jpg1200×1500 709 KB

Critique Style Requested: Initial Reaction

Please share your immediate response to the image before reading the photographer’s intent (obscured text below) or other comments. The photographer seeks a genuinely unbiased first impression.

Questions to guide your feedback

My goal was to show the intimacy of parent/offspring outside the nest. Having them both stare at me simultaneously was a bonus.

Other Information

Please leave your feedback before viewing the blurred information below, once you have replied, click to reveal the text and see if your assessment aligns with the photographer. Remember, this if for their benefit to learn what your unbiased reaction is.

Image Description

Baby owls are called owlets. Great Horned Owl owlets (Bubo virginianus) are nearly naked, and their eyes are closed at the time of hatching. At about one week of age, the owlets’ fluffy white down is replaced by grayish down; at ten days old, their eyes open. The female continues to brood the young owlets for a couple of weeks. Young may leave the nest and climb on nearby branches at 5 weeks, can fly at about 9-10 weeks; tended and fed by parents for up to several months. This image was made on the last day before it flew away from this perch with its parents.

Technical Details

Canon EOS 5D IV; Canon EF 200-400mm + 1.4k @ 448mm; f/8 @ 1/100 sec; +0.67 EV, ISO 200; Gitzo tripod, RRS BH 55; remote tigger

Specific Feedback

Whatever you wish, positive or not.

2

Very nice, Bob. They’re so hard to catch once they start branching. The last ones I’d heard of and went out to see chose that very day to disperse and the only shots were at extreme range. While the angle is a little steep here, it’s something that is almost impossible to avoid with these birds.

3

Thank you @Dennis_Plank for your perspective, one that includes mis-timing the departure date. I had gone to the nest site under a freeway overpass for days, waiting for the owlet to venture out (only one survived that long in the nest).
The birds were perched about 35-40 feet up in the tree. I backed up the slight hill supporting the tree to decrease the angle as much as possible, without introducing too many foreground branches. This was as good as I could get.

4

Hi Bob, nice catch of this pair and I like the detail achieved throughout on the birds. The birds looking down on us helps to mitigate the steep shoot angle. Nice capture.

5

Thank you @Allen_Sparks for your kind remarks.

6

A nice environmental shot of parent and offspring. I like how they’re looking down at you. Detail is very good.